Planet

• Astronomers continue to debate the classification of Pluto 20 years after it was stripped of its full planet status. • The controversy centers on whether the current definition of a planet is accurate or if Pluto should be reinstated. • This ongoing dispute highlights a fundamental disagreement within the scientific community regarding how celestial bodies are categorized.

An 1857 decree to drain swamps and plant a monoculture, detritus from the trees and global heating combined to produce the conditions for the Gironde infernoThe ruinous fires that overran parts of France this summer have burned more land than ever recorded, forced more people from their homes than at any point since the second world war and caused what scientists suspect is the country’s first firestorm thundercloud. The smoke from France’s biggest inferno in nearly 80 years choked Limoges, a city 125 miles (200km) from the flames, with more toxic dust than Delhi residents inhaled on the city’s worst day of smog last year.The blaze that tore through forests outside Bordeaux in late July took just a few weeks to reforge France’s relationship with fire, but the conditions behind it were centuries in the making. Continue reading...

• Astronomers have discovered a "mega-Earth," a massive rocky planet approximately 23 times more massive than Earth. • Unlike typical planets of this size, which usually develop thick gaseous envelopes, this planet has remained predominantly rocky. • The discovery challenges current planetary formation models regarding the threshold at which a planet becomes a gas giant.

• The Facility for Outreach and Community Engagement (FORCE) hosted events to train the next generation of planetary scientists in public engagement skills. • Visitors toured the facility, met the research team, and explored equipment used to simulate planetary interiors, while interns presented their research at a poster session. • The events aimed to explain complex science in accessible ways, enabling better understanding of how planets form and evolve.

Study of 56m-year-old leaves counters claims from Trump administration members of ‘benefits’ of fossil fuel pollutionAdding huge quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is set to cause the Earth’s forests to wither and die rather than flourish, according to a new study that counters erroneous claims that fossil fuel pollution will green the planet.An analysis of fossilized leaf cells from a period known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (or PETM), which occurred about 56 million years ago, has helped reconstruct how the world’s forests responded when planet-heating gases were previously being released at a rapid rate. Continue reading...

• Advancements in space science are being accelerated by the integration of quantum computing, nuclear fusion, and biological engineering. • Research is heavily focused on achieving controlled nuclear fusion through breakthroughs in magnetic and inertial confinement to provide a source of limitless clean energy. • These scientific developments are critical for enabling long-term interplanetary exploration and addressing the urgent global need to mitigate climate change.

• NASA is scheduled to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on August 30, 2026, using a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. • The telescope features a mirror similar in size to Hubble's but possesses a field of view approximately 100 times wider, allowing it to map dark energy and search for exoplanets. • By monitoring roughly 200 million stars for gravitational microlensing, the mission aims to discover over 1,000 planets, specifically targeting cold, distant worlds that current detection methods often miss.

• Recent breakthroughs in astrophysics, quantum computing, and precision medicine are converging through data synergy to accelerate the overall pace of human knowledge. • Researchers are transitioning from traditional optical telescopes to advanced infrared and radio astronomy to better observe the formation of the first stars and galaxies. • This shift in technology allows scientists to peer through cosmic dust clouds, facilitating a deeper understanding of the early universe and the search for extraterrestrial biosignatures.

• Non-profits including Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer), Earthjustice, and DarkSky International have filed a US petition demanding a formal review of proposed space-based datacenters. • The petition targets plans from tech companies, specifically those associated with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, citing fears of severe environmental destruction. • Experts warn that these orbital facilities could be "catastrophic" for the planet, specifically highlighting risks of increased light pollution and atmospheric damage.

• NASA's Psyche spacecraft successfully completed a Mars flyby, utilizing the planet's gravity to gain momentum for its journey toward a metal-rich asteroid. • During the maneuver, the probe tested its onboard scientific instruments, capturing high-resolution imagery and data of the Red Planet. • This flyby serves as a critical technical milestone, ensuring the spacecraft's systems are fully operational before it reaches its primary target.

• Scientists have identified a potentially habitable planet located 48 light-years away that possesses three critical requirements for life: a rocky composition, an atmosphere, and a suitable temperature. • This discovery is being highlighted as one of the closest approximations humans have found to a planet capable of supporting biological life. • The finding is significant because it provides a prime target for astronomers to study the chemical makeup of distant atmospheres in search of biosignatures.

• Astronomers have discovered an atmosphere containing helium on LHS 1140b, a rocky planet located 48 light-years away. • The planet is situated within its star's habitable zone, suggesting the potential for liquid water to exist on its surface. • This finding, published this week in the journal Science, marks a significant milestone in the search for life-friendly environments outside our Solar System.

• Astronomers have discovered a rocky exoplanet located 18,000 light-years away that may possess an Earth-like atmosphere capable of regulating climate. • Published in the journal Science, the study marks a significant breakthrough as researchers have previously only observed airless worlds or faint atmospheric remnants. • This discovery is critical because identifying stable atmospheres on rocky planets is a primary requirement in the search for life-sustaining environments beyond our solar system.

• Scientists have discovered the first confirmed atmosphere surrounding a rocky exoplanet located within its star's habitable zone. • This discovery marks the first time researchers have directly identified a specific atmospheric species on any rocky planet outside our solar system. • The finding is significant as it provides critical evidence regarding the potential for life and the environmental conditions of Earth-like worlds.

• Astronomers have discovered an atmosphere on a nearby Earthlike planet, marking the first time a potentially habitable world has been found to possess one. • An atmosphere is critical for life as it regulates climate, protects the surface from space radiation, and allows a planet to retain liquid water. • This discovery is significant because it establishes the planet as a primary candidate in the ongoing scientific search for extraterrestrial life.

• Astronomers have confirmed the presence of an atmosphere on LHS 1140 b, a rocky exoplanet located 48 light-years from Earth. • The planet is situated within its star's habitable zone, making it a primary candidate for studying the potential for liquid water and life. • This discovery is significant as it may be the first rocky planet in a habitable zone to have a confirmed atmosphere, a major milestone in two decades of exoplanet research.

• Astronomers from the University of California, Irvine, have updated their findings on an exoplanet located just 25 light years from Earth. • A new study published in The Astrophysical Journal reveals the planet is significantly smaller than previously estimated, possessing roughly twice the mass of Earth. • This discovery is critical because the planet's more manageable size makes it a much stronger candidate for being "Earth-like" and potentially habitable.

A brown huntsman is the quickest of more than 250 species analysed by scientists in the UK and GermanyIf arachnophobes were not frightened enough by the horrific ability of Australia’s huntsman spiders to drag dead mice up the sides of fridges, they now have another reason.They might be the fastest spiders on the planet. Continue reading...

• NASA's TESS satellite, launched in 2018 to detect exoplanets via the transit method (monitoring dips in stellar brightness), has accidentally discovered a distant world using an entirely different detection technique. • While the mission was specifically designed to find planets passing in front of stars, scientists realized the telescope was simultaneously collecting evidence for planets through an unexpected method. • This discovery is significant because it demonstrates that TESS can provide valuable astronomical data beyond its primary operational objective, expanding the scope of its scientific utility.

• The fridge-sized Hayabusa2 space probe performed a flyby of the near-Earth asteroid Torifune on Sunday. • JAXA scientists directed the probe to skim within 800 meters (0.5 miles) of the asteroid as part of a specialized test mission. • This operation serves as a trial run for planetary defense technology designed to determine if probes can successfully deflect dangerous space rocks away from Earth.

• Astronomers have discovered GJ 3378b, a potentially habitable planet located approximately 25 light-years from Earth. • The planet orbits a faint red dwarf star within the constellation Camelopardalis, positioned inside the star's habitable zone. • This discovery is significant because the planet's location suggests it could potentially support liquid water and the existence of life.

• Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe a unique gas giant exoplanet orbiting a dead star. • The discovery provides a rare glimpse into the final stages of a planetary system's life cycle after its host star has ceased nuclear fusion. • This observation is significant because it serves as a "time machine," allowing scientists to predict the eventual fate of our own solar system.

• NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is studying planets orbiting the remnants of dead Sun-like stars to understand the long-term evolution of solar systems. • By analyzing these distant systems, researchers like MacDonald are treating the observations as a "time machine" to predict the eventual fate of our own outer planets. • This research is significant because it provides the first direct look at how planetary bodies survive the death of their host stars.

• New state-of-the-art stellar evolution models suggest that Earth may avoid being engulfed when the sun eventually dies. • While the sun is expected to expand to hundreds of times its current size during its red giant phase, these models hint that the planet might escape this fate. • This research is significant as it challenges previous assumptions about the inevitable destruction of the innermost planets.

• NASA's Perseverance rover has detected hundreds of organic molecules within two mudstone samples in the Jezero crater on Mars. • These findings represent the most robust detection of complex carbon-based materials to date in this specific region of the Red Planet. • The discovery is significant because organic compounds are essential building blocks for life, strengthening the hypothesis that Mars once hosted ancient microbes.

• The European Space Agency's (ESA) Euclid spacecraft has captured the largest and most detailed image ever produced of the heart of the Milky Way galaxy. • The high-resolution photograph features over 60 million stars and identifies 51 known exoplanet systems within the region. • This achievement provides astronomers with an unprecedented dataset to study the galactic center and the distribution of stellar bodies.

• NASA's exoplanet-hunting spacecraft has discovered a highly unusual planetary system featuring an "improbable" and "wonky" orbital configuration. • The system's instability is driven by a massive, eccentric object within the system that disrupts the typical planetary alignment. • This discovery is significant because it provides crucial insights into how planets can form and survive around massive objects with extreme orbits.

• Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a "salty surprise" on a cold exoplanet nicknamed the "Pink Planet." • The research team noted that the chemical composition of this planet is unlike any other celestial body they have previously analyzed. • This discovery is significant as it provides new insights into the atmospheric makeup of some of the coldest exoplanets in the universe.